The Brief for UAE World Expo
The UAE government wanted to demonstrate the reach and scale of their global partnerships as part of their efforts to succeed in winning the bid to host the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. They required a dynamic, globe spanning documentary that would showcase some of the phenomenal projects and initiatives that the UAE government was supporting.
Above all, the film had to demonstrate the passion and belief in the ‘power of partnerships’ and the idea that if humanity works together – sharing its knowledge and skills – then the world can become a better place.
The project needed to be captured and delivered over twelve weeks. Furthermore, it required extensive international planning and permissions, as well as dealing with local contributors in multiple languages around the world.
Our Approach
Filming for the project would take place in every corner of the earth. Our crew was dispatched to document stories of enterprising women in Rwanda, a tech entrepreneur in Sri Lanka, a solar energy system being installed in the Pacific island of Vava’u in Tonga and the impact of a new, high-tech shipping port from DP World in Lima, Peru.
With a three month deadline our production team worked with local fixers in each country to find locations and ensure the full story would be told in the best possible way. Over 24,000 miles were flown to pull the piece together.
In Rwanda our team based itself in the capital Kigali. Each day the crew travelled to local villages covering the incredible stories of charitable enterprises that were helping bring economic prosperity to villages and farmers most severely affected by the genocide of the 90s. Filming with basket weavers and workers on a cassava plantation we charted how support from the UAE government had helped elevate the enterprises aims and ambitions and was helping regenerate Rwanda’s economy to help achieve the UNs millennium development goals.
In Colombo, Sri Lanka we were able to capture the story of a group of tech entrepreneurs who were partnering with Etisalat on developing reading apps in the local languages. Whilst the proliferation of apps across mobile devices was having a positive impact on education, it was also causing some to fear about cultural heritage being negatively impacted, as less citizens were able to find content in their first language.
